In the interests of creating more creatures for my Savage Worlds fantasy campaign, and possibly one day compiling an uber-bestiary with monsters from all sources combined, I thought it'd be useful to see how the range of monsters available lines up with that from old Dungeons & Dragons sources (specifically the AD&D 1st edition monster manuals, and the D&D Basic / Expert books).

I've spent a bit of time gathering lists of monsters from a few sources. At the moment for Savage Worlds I'm using SWEX, the Fantasy Companion, and the excellent free monster compendium Savage Beasts. The Fantasy Bestiary and Horror Bestiary Toolkits look like they could provide a few more creatures (though it looks like most of the monsters from the FBT are in the Fantasy Companion).

So far, the monsters from all 3 Savage Worlds sources combined are about equal to the number of creatures in the AD&D Monster Manual. However, there is some overlap between Savage Beasts and the Fantasy Companion, with certain monsters included (with slightly different descriptions) in both. This is to be expected, as the two books came from completely different sources, but it does mean that the number of creatures in the SW list isn't completely accurate. Also, of course, there are a few (not many though) creatures in SWEX and Savage Beasts which aren't suitable for use in a fantasy setting (mechs and UFOs, for instance).